Bay Area counties get failing grades in air quality, Lung Association reporter

Bay City News Service

Posted:
04/30/2007 09:34:57 PM PDT

Updated:
04/30/2007 09:35:10 PM PDT

Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that six key air pollutants have dropped by more than half since 1970, the American Lung Association reported that 26 of the 52 counties in California with air monitoring stations failed the clean-air test.

The American Lung Association's eighth annual clean air report looked at pollution data from 2003 to 2005 in U.S. counties that had air pollution monitors. The report broke types of pollution down into three categories, ozone pollution (also known as smog), short-term particle pollution (or soot) and annual particle pollution.

The EPA preliminary report, which examined 2006 emissions data for the six major air pollutants, noted that while the overall air pollution news was positive, ozone and particulate pollution remained the most persistent problems, according to an EPA press release.

In addition to ozone and particulate matter, the EPA looked at levels of nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and lead present in the air.

Several Bay Area counties, including Contra Costa, San Francisco and Santa Clara each received "F" grades in short term particle pollution, according to Andy Weisser, vice president of communications for the American Lung Association.

Los Angeles and Riverside counties were the worst polluted regions in the United States in all three categories, Weisser said.

In the Bay Area, Salinas was one of the top three cleanest cities in the nation in all three categories. San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland, on the other hand, had the worst overall pollution ratings in the region, Weisser said.

Advertisement

"Science really does unequivocally show that air pollution can be deadly," Tony Gerber, a volunteer for the American Lung Association and a pulmonary specialist, said today during a news conference. Even at levels that were once thought to be safe, Gerber said, pollution has been liked to increased deaths as a result of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

The American Lung Association has been pushing the EPA to adopt stricter standards on emissions and air quality, said Janice Nolan, assistant vice president in the American Lung Association's National Policy and Advocacy office. Studies have shown that the current standard for safe levels of ozone pollution are not actually safe, she said, and air quality standards need to be tightened.

Bonnie Holmes-Gen, assistant vice president for the American Lung Association's governmental relations office, said that her office has been focusing on lobbying for stricter emissions standards on construction equipment, which is the second largest diesel emitter, and stricter laws regulating idling trucks.